White American Vegans Are Racist According to Popular Social Justice Warrior

[mks_dropcap style=”letter” size=”52″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]E[/mks_dropcap]arlier this week, The Daily Texan, an op-ed newspaper from The University of Texas at Austin, published an article claiming “American veganism” is exclusively a “white thing”. In the diatribe laden article student Audrey Larcher makes many weak points in an attempt to support this.

Vegan. The image most people associate with this label is typically some hipster of the variety indigenous to Austin. They’re tattooed, and they’re probably slender. They have ratty hair which may or may not be fashioned into dreadlocks. But above all, they are definitely white. – Audrey Larcher

The fact that she even starts off by painting a stereotype is almost insulting to her readers.

She goes on to say that white vegans prefer meat or dairy free options over “compassionate consumption” alternatives from other countries. Indian food for example. This is a hold over from the common belief that white people don't appreciate multicultural cuisine. I can't speak as a vegan, but I, for one, love a good lamb vindaloo.

Larcher also stated that organic and vegan foods are unobtainable for people with low incomes, who wish to eat healthy, due to high prices.

While grocers that cater to white vegans may very well believe in the benefits of healthy diets, the prices they charge suggest profit is their primary motivation. The price inflation of these easily accessible vegan items shuts out large swaths of people, including students. …If vegans are truly committed to cleaner and more compassionate consumption, they need to recognize the importance of making plant-based diets accessible to everyone. – Audrey Larcher

You don't need to go beyond your local grocery store's produce section to maintain a meat and dairy free diet. Rice, beans and grains are also viable options. Furthermore, with organic items becoming more and more common in supermarkets across the country over recent years the prices of such have dropped considerably. Did I mention Larcher is an Economics Freshman?

She even suggests that “white veganism” diminishes to the Black Lives Matter movement, as it focuses on the lives of animals and not black people.

This cultural exclusivity is problematic enough, but that’s only the tip of an insensitive iceberg. Most vegan communities offer no sympathy to victims of racism, appropriating minorities’ struggles to advance their own cause. Black Lives Matter is degraded to a distraction from chicken and cow lives, and equating America’s chattel slavery to the agriculture industry’s “imprisonment” of animals is commonplace. – Audrey Larcher